Welcome to the Trompeter Brewing Company and beer reviews. I gave up the bigger webspace and all the fun for a simple Blogger account and some freebies. Here I share reviews of beers that I try and of course also share all of my homebrewing adventures with everyone.

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Ace of Spades IPA

I brewed up a batch of Northern Brewers Ace of Spades IPA a few weeks ago. It was a short ferment and only took about 14 days to get down to the 1.011 range. I racked to a keg, set the gas on and let it sit for another week. The first pull was very tasty. It has a nice balance of roast but with the bite of an IPA. I didn't think that I would quite like that balance but it really turned out to be a great brew. After a few days I noticed that I completely forgot to dry hop it with the 2 hops it came with so I threw those into a paint strainer bag and tossed them into the keg. I don't normally remove dry hops after a week or two like some, and have had good success not doing so. I could tell just a few hours later that the dry hopping really makes this beer. Great nose, good lace on the glass, and just a really nice overall beer. I will brew this again sometime soon. Time to order a few more kits as my all grain brewing is on hold at the moment due to time constraints. I love to brew AG but with spring sports, kids, and work it becomes hard to carve out 4-5 hours on a Saturday. With the Northern Brewer extract kits I can still make great beer but do it inside while doing other things around the house.